A SLATE OF EXHIBITIONS in New York discover a spread of mediums, together with portray, pictures, and sound set up. Among the many reveals are a considerate dialog between the works of Glenn Ligon and late composer Julius Eastman; surveys of latest works by Lina Iris Viktor and Todd Grey; and shows by Tyler Mitchell and Saya Woolfolk prematurely of their participation in main museum exhibitions in New York:
Set up view of Julius Eastman & Glenn Ligon: Evil Nigger. | Courtesy 52 Walker
Julius Eastman & Glenn Ligon: Evil Nigger @ 52 Walker Gallery, 52 Walker Road (Tribeca), New York, N.Y. | Jan. 24-March 22, 2025
A dialog throughout disciplines and generations, this exhibition options works by composer and musician Julius Eastman (1940–1990) and New York artist Glenn Ligon (b. 1960), showcasing “their shared potential to derive which means from methods of repetition, erasure, improvisation, and translation.” The present’s title is derived from a 1979 composition by Eastman. Work, neon works, and an Eastman-inspired sound set up by Ligon are on view with 4 pianos on the heart of the gallery. Three of the devices, Yamaha participant pianos, carry out “Evil Nigger” each hour. Whereas the fourth—an vintage Weber piano representing the identical model Eastman used as a toddler and all through his profession—stays silent.
“The explanation I exploit that individual phrase is as a result of for me it has what I name a basic-ness about it. That’s to say, I really feel that, in any case, the primary niggers had been after all area niggers. Upon that’s actually the idea of what I name the American financial system. … What I imply by niggers is that factor which is key … and eschews that factor which is superficial.”
— Julius Eastman (Spoken introduction to Northwestern College Live performance, Jan. 16, 1980)
From left, LINA IRIS VIKTOR, “Bouré,” 2024 (24-carat gold, acrylic, gesso, linen, silk cocoons, banana silk, raffia on wooden panel, 49 1/5 x 24 x 2 1/2 inches / 125 x 61 x 6.5 cm). | © Lina Iris Viktor; LINA IRIS VIKTOR, “Shonan,” 2024 (24-carat gold, acrylic, silk, jute, gilded and painted bronze beads on paper, Framed: 53 1/4 x 45 3/8 x 2 inches / 135.3 x 115.3 x 5.1 cm, Art work: 29 7/8 x 22 inches / 76 x 56 cm). | © Lina Iris Viktor
Lina Iris Viktor: Pink Season @ Salon 94, 3 East 89th Road (Higher East Facet), New York, N.Y. | Feb. 19-March 29, 2025
“Pink Season” presents eight work and mixed-media works on paper by Liberian-British artist Lina Iris Viktor. That includes figurative, panorama, and architectural parts, the works are produced in a limited-palette of 24 carat gold and wealthy crimson purple. Viktor’s “use of purple faucets into its archetypal significance, drawing inspiration from the Dogon individuals of Mali, the place purple is related to femininity, transformation, and spirituality, thus connecting her work to broader African traditions and cosmologies.”
TODD GRAY, “Blues Ship (makes me wanna holla),” 2024 (three pigment ink prints on Dibond in artist’s frames, 41 x 61 1/8 x 2 3/4 inches / 104.1 x 155.3 x 7 cm). | © Todd Grey, Courtesy Lehmann Maupin Gallery
Todd Grey: White Angels Gaze @ Lehmann Maupin Gallery @ 501 West twenty fourth Road (Chelsea), New York, N.Y. | Jan. 23-March 29, 2025
Photograph-based artist Todd Grey joined Lehmann Maupin in 2023 and that is his first solo exhibition with the gallery in New York. Grey’s compositional works convey collectively seemingly disparate photos. The works are designed “to destabilize assumptions concerning the veracity of pictures and provoke reconsiderations of long-accepted norms and beliefs surrounding the medium, together with the position of the viewer in setting up which means.” The artist’s newest physique of labor attracts on images made throughout his 2023 fellowship on the American Academy in Rome, Italy, and alternatives from his archive of early 2000s music pictures. Grey divides his time between Los Angeles, Calif., and Akwidaa, Ghana.
TYLER MITCHELL, “Ghost Photos, 2024 (archival pigment print, 63 x 77 3/8 inches / 160 x 196.4 cm), version of three + 2 AP). | © Tyler Mitchell, Courtesy Gagosian
Tyler Mitchell: Ghost Photos @ Gagosian Gallery, 541 West twenty fourth Road (Chelsea), New York, N.Y. | Feb. 27–April 5, 2025
For his first solo exhibition with Gagosian since becoming a member of the gallery final 12 months, New York photographer Tyler Mitchell engaged Southern gothic themes. Mitchell returned to his house state, the place the pictures had been photographed off the coast of Georgia on Jekyll and Cumberland Islands. Captured in 2024, the placing works discover seaside leisure and the psychological influences of historical past, reminiscence, and the unseen. Forthcoming, Mitchell photographed “Superfine: Tailoring Black Model,” the catalog documenting the Costume Institute’s spring 2025 exhibition on the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork in New York.
From left, SAYA WOOLFOLK, “Birthing a New Sky: Starship Moon Cycle, 2022 (combined media collage on paper, Sheet: 46 x 35 inches, Framed: 47 1/4 x 36 inches). | © Saya Woolfalk; SAYA WOOLFALK, “Untitled (4),” 2024 (ceramic head, glass neck, 20 3/4 x 10 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches). | © Saya Woolfalk, Pictures: Adam Reich, Courtesy Susan Inglett Gallery
Saya Woolfalk: The Woods Girl Methodology @ Susan Inglett Gallery, 522 West twenty fourth Road (Chelsea), New York, N.Y. | Jan. 31-March 15, 2025
Saya Woolfalk makes works based mostly on an imagined, hybrid species (Empathics) impressed by her personal multicultural background (African American, Japanese, and European) and parts of science fiction, feminist concept, anthropology, and Japanese faith, in addition to vogue. Empathics are “botanic humanoid beings” with a excessive capability for empathy. In 2021, “Woods Girls,” a secret society of forest dwellers, grew out of this invented world and are the topic this present. Closing at this time, the presentation options greater than 30 works spanning drawings, prints, mixed-media collages, sculpture, and video, produced between 2016 and 2024. The exhibition is offered in collaboration with Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Tasks. In April, “Saya Woolfalk: Empathic Universe,” the artist’s first main museum exhibition in New York, opens at The Museum of Arts & Design. CT
